KDs are designed/developed/inspired/mused/auto-suggested/indigested to make folks think; an especially uncommon experience among Democrats, Republicans, and jingoistic mainline denominationalists who continue to discourage dissent with their ever-threatening thought police.

Sunday, November 29, 2015

Anyone who says Christianity is complicated
is spending too much time in books about the book than in the book itself.

A troubled pastor asked, “Is Christianity as
complicated as we are making it?Did
Jesus really have all of these theologies and denominations and bulletins and
vestments and stained glass windows and ornaments and relics and…in mind?”

“I may be wrong,” I responded, “but I think
Christianity is really, really, really quite simple.Love Jesus and know for sure that you’re
going to heaven after your last breath.In the meantime, you love Jesus by loving like Jesus because
you’re so grateful about going to heaven after you die.As far as I can see, that’s Christianity by
the book.”

Let’s spell it out.

It’s so simple.

When Jesus was asked to sum up what it means
to be Godly, He explained, “Love the Lord with all your heart and with
all your soul and with all your mind; and love your neighbor as much as you
love yourself.”

Simply, love
God and/by be/being kind to one another.

He was summing up the Ten Commandments.

The first half of the big ten is all about
loving God: “no other gods…no idols…no messing around with His name by taking
it in vain…and not missing worship.”

The second half is all about loving others to
prove loving God: “prize your parents…don’t murder…don’t mess around with
someone who ain’t your spouse…don’t take what doesn’t belong to you…stop
gossiping…and be satisfied with what you’ve got.”

Let’s take a closer look.

1. “You shall have no other gods before
Me.”If we get this one right,
everything else falls into place.If
honoring Him above all else is our highest goal, greatest ambition, and most
fervent prayer, we are more inclined to follow the rest of His rules for good
behavior.

2. “No idols.”That means no one or no thing is allowed to
distract us from the attention, allegiance, and affection due God alone.

3. “Don’t take His name in vain.”That means not attaching His name to anyone
or anything out of His character or antithetical to His book.

4. “Don’t miss worship.Remember the Sabbath.”People who know who God is (sovereign) and
what He has done for them (salvation) worship Him with enthusiasm and without
equivocation.

5. “Honor/prize your parents.”Remember what they have done for us and obey
them as they obey God.

6. “Don’t murder.”God not you or me or anyone else is
the source, starter, sovereign, and savior of life from before the womb to
after the tomb.

7. “Don’t commit adultery.”That means not messing around with someone
who ain’t your spouse because it is taking the attention, allegiance, and
affection due them and giving it to someone else who doesn’t deserve it.

8. “Don’t steal.”If it doesn’t belong to us, it’s not ours to
take.

9. “Don’t lie or gossip.”God likes the truth, the whole truth, and
nothing but the truth.

10. “Don’t covet or lust for something that
God has not intended for you.”We must
be satisfied with what we’ve got because that’s all we’re gonna get.

Again, the first half (1-4) is inextricably
woven into the fabric of the second half (5-10): “Love God and/by be/being kind
to one another.”

Being Godly is all about loving God
and proving that love by loving others; or as Jesus explained, “As you do it
to/for others, you do it to/for Me.”

I think of a few lyrics from Stephen Schwartz
in Pippin: “I know the parables told in the Holy Book…I keep close on my
shelf…God’s wisdom teaches me when I help others…I’m really helping myself…And
if we all could spread a little sunshine…All could lend a helping hand…We’d all
be a little closer…to the promised land.”

J. Edgar Hoover often said there’d be no need
for the FBI if people lived by the Ten Commandments.

True.

And as Jesus said, “Truth makes/keeps us
free.”

The Ten Commandments are God’s way of keeping
us out of trouble with Him and each other.

Let me put it another way.

These basic rules for good behavior are
liberating not limiting; guiding us on the best way(s) to get along with Him
and each other.

That’s why they are often referred to as the
basic building blocks of civilization and the answer to our prayer, “Your
kingdom come.Your will be done on
earth as it is in heaven.”

I recalled the preceding and experienced the freedom to converse
candidly yet respectfully with our Father when I heard Him say to me just
before leading a corporate prayer on a Sunday that I had sculpted on a Friday,
“Bob.Bob!We went over that on Friday!Don’t you have anything new to talk about
with Me today?This is not a show!This is not a religion.This is a relationship.Let’s talk!”

Since then, I find myself sometimes praying corporately, “Well, Lord, I
know this is coming through me; and the language and content may not reflect
the praise and thanks and confessions and beggings of the folks gathered
here.So if it applies, that’s great!If not, do Your thing with them apart from my
interference…”

BTW, I often refer to God as Father in “my” prayers with “our”
family of faith on the corner of Lincoln and Main in Belvidere, Illinois; and
when challenged by somebody, you know, caught up in, you know…., I share a
little story about a friend who was thusly challenged by an ecclesiastical
bureaucrat in Rochester, New York many, many, many years ago during a vetting
interview as part of a church’s search for a new pastor.After praying as requested - I guess to grade
how he prays rather than actually pray – she said, “I was
offended by your use of ‘Father’ for God in your prayer.”My buddy replied kindly yet directly, “Well,
if it’s good enough for Jesus, it’s good enough for me.”

So this will be my prayer on Thanksgiving Day; and if the shoe fits…

Father,

As I try to count Your blessings to us in time, I can’t improve upon
Ralph Waldo Emerson: “For each new morning with its light, for rest and shelter
of the night, for health and food, for love and friends, for everything Your
goodness sends.”

Thank You.

Yes, I thank You for everything and everyone that bring pleasure and
safety in time.

I know I could never count all of the blessings that You have graced
upon us in time; but these come to mind: America with still enough people who
really want to be one nation under You, churches like ours that still love You
by the book, and the help of Your Holy Spirit to be faithful as true
thanksgiving whenever and wherever with whomever.

As we begin this feast, help us not only to remember the hungry but
also to embrace ways to feed them.

As we celebrate the safety and security of our homes, help us not only
to remember those around the globe who are being persecuted by the accomplices
of evil but also to do everything that we can to prevent them from being
persecuted.

As we revel in our contented comfort, help us not only to remember the
challenged and discomforted but also to labor for their total welfare.

Of course, we give our highest praise and thanks to You for the
greatest blessing of all that transcends time and place: eternal life in heaven
by grace through faith in Jesus.

Knowing the privileges in time are fixed in time and often forfeited by
our mismanagement or stolen by greed and not shared equally by all, we praise
You and thank You that peace and joy are infinitely more dependent upon a
personal relationship with You than existential circumstances that do not last
forever.